henryf
Well-known member
Had a chance to spend a bit of time on the new Sunseeker Ocean 156 at the Southampton boat show.
I’ve never been a huge fan of the Sunseeker look hence ending up buying several Princess boats but the Ocean 156 is much more pleasing to the eye. They took it out for a sunset cruise on Thursday and it looked really well leaving the show. More boats should do the evening cruise thing at Southampton like they do at Cannes.
There was a lot of competition for the 80 ish foot buyer in that corner of the show. My personal favourite the Princess X80, the Y80 and the S80 which share the same hull and now this new kid from Poole.
There are a couple of layout options on the 156 Ocean’s main deck. Strangely this boat didn’t have cockpit to flybridge stairs but it is an option.
One thing which did work well at the show were the forward facing patio doors onto the fore deck but I was left wondering what happens if you take some water on the nose? I know from coding a couple of boats forward facing doors are treated very differently to the normal rear facing patio doors. What’s the expert opinion on here? I’m not sure how comfortable I’d be having less than perfectly sealed patio doors protecting me.
The other thing which I found off putting was not being able to see the front of the boat from the helm station. You would pretty much need a permanent crew member on comms stood up front in any traffic area.
I also thought the crew area felt cramped and disjointed. At this size you’re going to have some crew aboard even if you owner skipper. On the X80 the main deck master cabin forward means you end up with a spare cabin down below that can be given over to crew and still have 4 good guest cabins. That gives you 5 crew bunks and 2 bathrooms. 2 of the bunks and 1 of the bathrooms are guest quality.
Was it enough to tempt me away from an X80 dream? No I don’t think so but a good looking boat all the same.
What did other people think who saw it at SIBS ?
I’ve never been a huge fan of the Sunseeker look hence ending up buying several Princess boats but the Ocean 156 is much more pleasing to the eye. They took it out for a sunset cruise on Thursday and it looked really well leaving the show. More boats should do the evening cruise thing at Southampton like they do at Cannes.
There was a lot of competition for the 80 ish foot buyer in that corner of the show. My personal favourite the Princess X80, the Y80 and the S80 which share the same hull and now this new kid from Poole.
There are a couple of layout options on the 156 Ocean’s main deck. Strangely this boat didn’t have cockpit to flybridge stairs but it is an option.
One thing which did work well at the show were the forward facing patio doors onto the fore deck but I was left wondering what happens if you take some water on the nose? I know from coding a couple of boats forward facing doors are treated very differently to the normal rear facing patio doors. What’s the expert opinion on here? I’m not sure how comfortable I’d be having less than perfectly sealed patio doors protecting me.
The other thing which I found off putting was not being able to see the front of the boat from the helm station. You would pretty much need a permanent crew member on comms stood up front in any traffic area.
I also thought the crew area felt cramped and disjointed. At this size you’re going to have some crew aboard even if you owner skipper. On the X80 the main deck master cabin forward means you end up with a spare cabin down below that can be given over to crew and still have 4 good guest cabins. That gives you 5 crew bunks and 2 bathrooms. 2 of the bunks and 1 of the bathrooms are guest quality.
Was it enough to tempt me away from an X80 dream? No I don’t think so but a good looking boat all the same.
What did other people think who saw it at SIBS ?
the boat was very much an unusual layout, the forward dining area with the big table looks impressive but I don’t think it would work in the real world. You could have a superb master suite there. Also not a fan of the single internal staircase but I guess it’s an option. Bit of a first world problem though since there is no chance I could buy one. My favourite new boat of the show was the Sunseeker 76.
